It’s easy to see the attraction. First, there’s a lot to choose from. Each day over 300,000 new items are listed on eBay alone. It’s like going into a Third World street market except better. You don’t have to know the language, don’t need to learn the customs, and that smelly guy with the food stuck in his teeth who hasn’t showered for three days is 1,500 miles away sitting in front of his computer which means you don’t have to smell him.

     And why not? It wouldn’t be far from what happens now. Instead of having big corporations and special interest groups making political donations, shoveling soft money at the candidates, and paying former White House staffers who couldn’t get a job on TV as a political analyst to act as lobbyists, they could just flat out bid for the presidency on eBay. The highest bidder would get to choose who they want in the White House.

     The only problem is this ignores Abraham Lincoln, who said our government was created "of the people, by the people, for the people." He’s right, you know. Why should the government make all the profit? I say we, the voters, should get a piece of the action.

     That’s why I’m going to put my vote up for auction. It’s time to make the "e" in eBay stand for election by posting an online ad that reads: "For sale: one vote. Original owner. In excellent condition. Only used once every four years."

     There could be some pretty good money in this. In the recent San Francisco mayoral election Clint Reilly spent $4 million to get 21,867 votes, which came to $183 a vote. And even at that he lost to Tom Ammiano, who spent a measly 45 cents a vote on a write-in campaign and made it into the run-off. I don’t know about you, but for $182.55 I could easily be talked into changing my vote. And that’s only for mayor of San Francisco, can you imagine what the bids would be like for my presidential vote?